Subject: NICFPS First star light

From: Ed Turner

Submitted: Fri, 24 Sep 2004 13:15:31 -0400 (EDT)

NICFPS went on the sky for the first time last night during twilight,
using time generously given up by Don York for the purpose, and achieved
quick and striking success. The NICFPS team describe themselves as
"pretty jazzed" and add that much credit for the fast progress "goes to
the APO team which has been on-the-spot supportive since we arrived a few
days ago."
NICFPS will have 3 half nights of additional (and hopefully clear) time
on the sky during the next several days/nights, and the team promises to
post a more detailed report afterwards, but for now it seemed worth
sharing the very initial report below.
In any case, congrats and thanks to the NICFPS team and the APO staff for
this first success.
Ed Turner
Begin forwarded message:
>
> Hi guys,
>
> We were fortunate to get a little bit of time on the sky tonight right
> after sunset (thanks to Don York and the staff at APO).
> We were able to get a few sky flats and a quick focus run.
>
> We first pointed at Vega with nominal DIS settings (focus and
> offsets). The first attached pdf file shows the "first ever star
> image" with NICFPS: Vega with 0 second integration (which is really
> about 3.25 seconds), out of focus and very saturated through the 2.12
> microns narrow band filter.
>
> The second and third attached images are the best "quick" focus image
> of a 10.7 mag star again through the 2.12 micron filter (30 seconds)
> and its corresponding profile. The focus position was about +150
> microns and is very close to the nominal position. The star is very
> close to the center of the chip when using the DIS settings. With a
> pixel scale of 0.27"/pixel, our fwhm corresponds to about 0.8".
>
>
> YEAH !!!
>
>
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